Modulr Horn

Two oscillators a voice, a filter that switches between two and four poles, and an upper and a lower part, over fifty patches that each load the whole sound.

Modulr Horn is an eight-voice polyphonic synthesizer after the grammar of a 1981 programmable polysynth. Two oscillators a voice with saw, pulse, sync and detune, a filter that switches between two and four poles, two envelopes, an LFO, glide and unison, and an upper and a lower part you can split at a key or double across the keyboard.

Plug-in · VST3 and Audio Unit

Legendary→Pricing→

73 controlsevery one can be automated from your music software

50 patcheseach one loads the whole sound

VST3 · AUApple silicon, macOS 11 or later

Hear it

Seven sounds, played as they ship.

Each clip is the plug-in itself: a patch is picked in the drawer and loaded, then a short phrase is played on it. The settings are this product’s reading of each sound’s role on the record named, not the artist’s own, and the fifty patches hold seven distinct sounds, one for each clip here.

Jump — 1984 BrassBrass · stabA reading of the brass line on Van Halen’s “Jump” (1984): two detuned saws through the low-pass.

1999 — 1999 LeadLead · stabA reading of the chord stabs on Prince’s “1999” (1982).

Little Red Corvette —Studio · the engine as builtThe slow intro chords of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette” (1982) have no documented settings, so this patch, and sixteen others like it, loads the instrument as it ships.

Stand Back — The PadsPad · chorusedA reading of the main chord pad on Stevie Nicks’s “Stand Back” (1983).

Radio Ga Ga — KeysKeys · pluckA reading of the electric-piano part on Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga” (1984).

Hold Me Now BassBass · sawA reading of the synth bass on Thompson Twins’ “Hold Me Now” (1984).

Here's to Future Days RiffSequence · straightA reading of the bass line on Thompson Twins’ “Here’s to Future Days” (1985).

How it plays

Two parts, one keyboard.

Two oscillators a voice.Each with a saw and a pulse that can sound together, a pulse width, an octave, and the second with detune and a hard sync to the first.
A filter with two poles or four.A resonant low-pass whose envelope amount, keyboard tracking and LFO send you set, over a filter envelope and an amplifier envelope.
An upper and a lower part.Each part has its own sound. Choose Upper or Lower and the knobs edit that part; play them as one on Manual, split at a key you choose, or doubled on every key.
Levers, glide and unison.A pitch lever that springs back, a modulation lever that stays where you leave it, portamento, and unison across the voices.
Patches that load the whole sound.Pick a patch and every control moves to it at once; the drawer closes and the keys are ready. Hold to preview plays a patch’s tone on your own MIDI, and when you let go the instrument is exactly as it was.
Services.Choose whether the instrument answers your host’s MIDI and clock, set its output level, and age it: the decay shortens, the tuning drifts flat and the resonance rings less.

Requirements

What it needs.

Format	Systems	Licence
VST3 · Audio Unit	macOS 11 or later, on Apple silicon	A licence is needed to make sound. Without one the editor opens and the output is silent.

The drawings

The editor, and the module it becomes.

The plug-in is built. The Eurorack module is drawn, with its macro knobs and the control jacks under them, and is not.

The Modulr Horn plug-in editor, as it opens — The Modulr Horn editor as it opens: colour-capped knobs in two tiers, master, LFO, oscillators, filter and envelopes, eight patch caps, over 61 keys.

The Modulr Horn Eurorack module, 30 HP, in its case — The same study as a 30 HP module: ten colour-capped macros, each in a cell with a jack under it, eight patch caps and a patch read-out.

The editor is the plug-in’s own, as it opens. The module is drawn by the specification’s own kit, and its values are illustrative, not measured. The design is OB-Xa’s grammar, redrawn in Modulr’s own words, and nothing on it is measured against the instrument.

The instrument it studies

OB-Xa, 1981.

The instrument’s own grammar, as the catalogue recalls it: the sections, the controls and the look the study borrows.

The programmable polysynth grammar: two oscillators per voice, a two- or four-pole filter, two ADSR envelopes, an LFO, eight patch buttons in banks with split and double, and a 61-key bed with two levers.

A black panel with a faint grain between walnut cheeks: big skirted knobs with colour-coded caps (red oscillators, amber filter, blue LFO, slate amplifier, cream master) under printed colour rules, red-lamp push buttons, a row of eight patch caps and a red LED patch read-out.

Two oscillators per voice (octave, waveform, pulse width, detune, sync)
A 12 dB filter with a 2- and 4-pole mode (cutoff, resonance, envelope amount, keyboard)
Two ADSR envelopes (filter and amplifier)
An LFO (rate, depth, waveform, destinations)
A programmer with push-button banks of 8 patches and a split and double mode
A master volume and tune
61 keys with pitch and mod controls
Eight voices

The spec sheet

The module, knob by knob.

The module is a design study and is not built. Its macros are the signature controls a player reaches for, not a generic set; each one has a control jack under it.

Macro	Key	Range	Default
Cutoff	vcf.cut	20 Hz – 20 kHz	20 kHz
Reso	vcf.res	0–100%	0%
Env amt	vcf.env	0–100%	0%
Detune	osc2.detune	±100 ct	0 ct
PW	osc1.pw	5–95%	50%
LFO rate	lfo.rate	0.1 Hz – 40 Hz	5 Hz
LFO depth	lfo.depth	0–100%	0%
Attack	aenv.attack	0 ms – 20 s	5 ms
Release	aenv.release	0 ms – 20 s	200 ms
Volume	out.vol	-inf – +6 dB	0.0 dB

Side	Jacks
In	Note (MIDI), V/Oct (CV), Gate (CV), Sync (Audio), Next (CV)
Out	Out (Audio), LFO (CV)

The plug-in is built. The module is not.Built · not yet on saleModulr Horn is a working VST3 and Audio Unit. It is not a copy of any instrument: no maker’s name or logo is drawn on a panel, and nothing is measured against the original. It is not in the shop yet, and the Eurorack module drawn on this page is a design study and is not built.

Legendary is the catalogue of the Modulr Synths project: 43 design studies drawn with the specification’s own kit, 33 after the synthesizers of all time and 10 after the drum machines. The makers and years named here are the instrument’s; the names, the layouts and every value are Modulr’s own.